Today I want to start with the wardrobe simplification, which we can call the 101 of simplification, namely our clothes.

First of all, why do we have so many clothes? I want to look at them under a few headings.

Then, how should we simplify them? What stages should we go through? What should we do while simplifying? And finally, I want to talk about a few tricks that we need to look at while creating our own style.

First, let's start with why we have so many clothes. I think the first one is the desire to consume. Buy, buy, which is imposed on us... There is a constant discount. As you know, clothes used to last at most 4 seasons. In fact, 2 seasons for summer and winter. Now, clothes change every 15 days and in order to save this cycle, continuous production is carried out and the remaining products are constantly marketed to you with various campaigns. As a result of this, we can often shop more with the excitement that comes from the fact that something is cheap. Therefore, we can say that the first reason is the impulse to buy.

Second: Our lives change, we become students, we start working. We switch from more active lives to more sedentary lives. We get married, have children. Our lifestyles also affect our bodies. We can lose weight, we can gain weight. That's why there are always a lot of clothes in our closet - usually not when we gain weight, but - that we say we will wear when we lose weight. In fact, let alone old clothes, we buy new clothes according to the image in our head. When I lose five kilos, I can wear this, when I lose this weight, I can wear this outfit. This dress is very nice, and the price is very good. Let me buy this, I will wear it when the time comes. Sometimes they are left in our closet with their tags, sometimes for years.

Another reason is not knowing ourselves. What part of us should we highlight? Is our neck beautiful, is our waist thin, is our hips wide? What is it, what should we cover, what should we open? What color goes with us, what goes with what? We shop without thinking about these. We bought shoes, the shoes are very nice on their own, but there is no pair of pants that we can wear with them, for example. In such cases, not knowing ourselves or our lives..

I have a job where I have to dress very seriously, but I constantly go and buy colorful t-shirts or printed t-shirts. Most of my life is spent at work. The number of t-shirts I can wear on the weekends is limited, but I still buy those t-shirts because I love them so much. What happens is that I need 10% of those t-shirts in my closet, while 50% of them are t-shirts, for example…

Of course, there are things we keep because we think it would be rude. Sometimes you get something as a gift on your birthday. Let's say there is no exchange card or even if there is an exchange card, we think "She thought so much and bought it for me, it would be rude if I exchanged it now", but the sleeves of the clothes are tight or they don't suit you at all. You don't like lace, the collar is like lace. Or, a step further, a handmade outfit. They knitted a beautiful scarf, shawl or sweater for you. You won't wear it or you like a different style or color anyway. You keep it just because it wouldn't be rude, you can't bear to give it away. Maybe if you have a tailor mother like me, she makes clothes for you. The clothes she sews with you are very nice, there is no problem, but sometimes, let's say she chooses and buys fabric according to her own taste and sews them.

Unfortunately, they sit in your closet without being worn.

These clothes are collected for similar reasons and you open your closet. Three shirts on top of each other on a hanger, the pants are now hanging from the hangers. Yes, your closet is rebelling now. You look at your t-shirts in the closet, they can no longer stay on top of each other, they have become a ball or they are damaged from being squeezed. It doesn't matter if you iron them and put them away. In other words, the closet/wardrobe now says: "Simplify me."

So... What do we do then?

They usually say make 3 boxes. One for things to be given/sold, one for things to keep, and one for things that have become trash.

I want to expand this by taking inspiration from the book I recently read, 'curated closet'.

Because I don't want to leave it in such strict or narrow 3 categories.

First: Let's say you look at the clothes you keep because of your weight... Set a limit for yourself there. I think these are the clothes I can wear for five kilos +/- 5. I'm putting the rest aside now. You can donate them now, there are clothing banks or associations around you that buy clothes. They may be people you know that you can give to yourself or you can sell them. There are many second-hand platforms. As you know, there are sites like 'modacruz, letgo, tarz2...'. You can give them from Freecycle mailing groups.

There are also things that are considered trash. What can they be? For example, underwear, things that cannot be given to anyone else, or socks. We can call them hygiene clothes.

Sportswear is generally not second-hand because you wear them over and over again, sweat constantly, and after a certain point they really deform because they are washed. You can recycle them or you can use socks, some of the t-shirts -let's say some torn/worn ones- for projects.

There is a suggestion that I really like to make sock puppets, or you can make bags from t-shirts, you can cut t-shirts and crochet them to make coasters, or if you believe in a garbage-free life, zero waste and want to implement these, you can cut pieces from t-shirts and make kitchen cloths, or as I said, you can knit them and make kitchen sponges, dish sponges. In other words, you can use them for advanced recycling, which we call 'upcycle'.

There are also those that you will try to part with these clothes. You look at the clothes, it seems like the color is not your color, but you bought it with love at the time. Then you give it a chance. What can you do? You can either put them in a box and put them away -these are the things you will try to break up with- and put a reminder on it, saying "I won't open this for 5-6 months" and really get rid of it during that period. If you have never needed these clothes during this period, then there is no problem in breaking up anyway. But if you need them, and say "I had a blue sweater or a red sock, I really liked it. It goes with this outfit", you can take them from there and put them back in your closet.

Or try to wear clothes that you are not sure about -my method- constantly. You have a shirt and you are not sure. Do I like it or not? Try to make combinations with it constantly, try to wear it. If you see that it doesn't work, it makes you unhappy every time you wear it or you put it on and want to take it off before even going out, then that means there is no place for that outfit in your closet anyway. And of course there are pieces that need alterations.

If you want to simplify your closet, one of the things you really need to do is take a day, take everything out of that closet and try it on one by one.

Because after a while, so many clothes accumulate in the closet that you don't know which one fits you or maybe your body has changed during this period, whether it makes you look bulky or not, it is useful to try on the clothes one by one to see these and even make combinations like this shirt goes with these pants, this t-shirt goes with this skirt while you are already wearing it.

Ask yourself this question here: Can a piece of clothing - let's say a t-shirt - match at least 3 different things? Look at them with two different pants or a pair of shorts.

Of course, you always have special things called 'star pieces'. They are worn with only one thing or are very beautiful or stand out on their own. They are exceptions, but let's say 10% of the clothes in your closet are not like this, that is a high rate. If you have so many individual pieces, after a while you won’t be able to match clothes with each other in your closet and your closet will start to swell again.

After you separate all of these, there will be pieces left in your closet. Now examine your closet at this point. You looked, simplified, gave them away, did upcycling projects, there were some that went and came back during renovations. Does your closet make you happy in its current state? Here comes the part of getting to know yourself. What is your style, what is your lifestyle, what kind of clothes do you need?

You need to sit down and question yourself. There are two important things here:

The first is to determine your style. In this simplification movement, you have worn and taken things off, looked at their colors. You will already have an idea there. What do you like, what suits you -after wearing so many clothes-, what doesn’t? This will feed you a little anyway.

For example, you can go to Pinterest -you can create a board that can be closed or open- and save the pieces you like there. Save it, spend a month on it. Go in from time to time, put the things you like, the combinations, one by one. Then - let's say at the end of a month - think about the clothes in your closet with those there. Are you going towards a certain style? Are you attracted to stripes, plaids or long dresses? Instead of making impulse purchases, if you had some time and thought about it, try to understand what you want to buy. You've looked at the boards, you've looked at your closet. At that point, remove what you lack. For example, for me, a nice pair of jeans is a must in a closet. Because it's a piece I use a lot in my daily life, but let's say I eliminated some of them because they were old and some because they were no longer available, and I don't have any jeans left. Remove such pieces - let's say a pair of jeans or a coat - list them and shop slowly according to that list.

1- Try on your clothes, don't buy anything without trying them on.

2- Make it a habit to read the labels of clothes.

How much of it is cotton or how much of it is wool, polyester, acrylic..?

When you start reading labels a little bit, you will leave many pieces you already like on the hanger like this. Because you will see how many polyester, acrylic, etc. items there are that look like cotton or wool, and once you become aware of this, you will start not to like wearing them. Because they will make you sweat and feel uncomfortable.

When you understand that the things you could not understand before, saying "Why am I sweating so much?", are made of the fabric of the clothes, you will start to shop more consciously.

Another handicap while simplifying is the clothes we paid a lot of money for. Let's say you bought a very nice pair of shoes, maybe even bought them online. They came, they were a little tight on your feet, you said "it doesn't matter", the replacement period passed and they remained in your closet. Or there was no problem with it fitting your feet but you can't wear it with anything, its color is so irrelevant. It didn't go with any of your clothes and it just sits in your closet. On the other hand, there is always a thought in the back of your mind that 'I paid a lot of money for this'.

What's done is done. Please don't get hung up on this and know how to say goodbye to them. Because now there is real damage done there. Just keep your closet in mind with every item you buy from now on. When you reduce your clothes, you will remember the style of your closet better. You will know, 'my closet is more pastel tones or I like very vibrant colors'.

Otherwise, when your closet is full, of course, when you pick up anything, you may even be buying the same thing in your closet. You have three white t-shirts at home. You go and buy the fourth one because you like the model, but in fact you already have more than that, but when your closet is down to a certain number, you will shop more consciously and appropriately when you know what you need.

My last suggestion is for those who want to solve this problem in the most practical way.

If you say, “I don’t have time for this, I don’t want to spend a day on this” or “I’m bored”, what you need to do is hang all your clothes upside down on the hanger, or if you already have your clothes hanging, just turn them all upside down and when you put the clothes you only wear back in the closet, put them straight on the hanger. So when you look at your closet after a week, ten days or a month, you will see that some clothes have been worn and are straight. Some will be untouched and upside down. This will be a very simple elimination system that will show you which clothes you wear/need more on a daily basis and which ones you never look at.

After you have done this elimination, you can also simplify them by removing the clothes you have never touched in a shorter time and looking at them one by one with a buyer’s eye.